Last year, women made up just 13% of directors working on the top 250 films.
That level represents a 3 percentage point decline from 2024, when women accounted for 16% of the top-grossing films, according to a San Diego State University study released Thursday.
The alarming data comes as Hollywood tries to turn the page after a difficult year that included forest fires in Los Angelescontinuous decline in local film and television production And deaths from favorite directors.
“Hamnet,» directed by Chloe Zhao; Freaky Friday Directed by Nisha Ganatra; And “I know what you did last summer” under the direction of Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, were among the few notable exceptions.
The university's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film and its founder Martha M. Lauzen have been tracking the employment of women in behind-the-scenes decision-making positions for nearly three decades. Roles included in the study: directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematographers. To compile the report, data on more than 3,500 titles of the highest-grossing films was used.
Lauzen began her work in 1998, believing that pointing out the imbalance would open doors for women in Hollywood. But despite countless calls for action and a high-profile but short-lived federal investigation, the picture remains largely the same.
“The numbers are remarkably stable,” Lauzen said in an interview. “They have been remarkably stable for over a quarter of a century.”
Overall, women made up 23% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and directors of photography in the top 250 grossing films in 2025, according to Lauzen's report: “The Celluloid Ceiling: Women's Employment Behind the Scenes in the Top-Grossing U.S. Films.” In 2024 and 2020 the percentage was the same.
Her research found that in 2025, women will make up 28% of film producers and 23% of executive producers.
Among the screenwriters, only 20% were women.
Women also made up 20% of editors, which was the same as in 1998, when Lauzen began her research.
“There have been no changes,” she said.
Among filmmakers, women played only 7% of influential roles in the 250 top-grossing films.
The cinematographer serves as the director of photography, shaping much of the look and feel of the film. Last year marked a sharp decline from 2024, when 12% of filmmakers were women.
Since 1998, there has been a change in the number of female directors. That year, only 7% of the top-grossing films were directed by women. Last year, the total increased by 6 percentage points.
Lausen's last report appeared ten years after The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched an investigation into alleged gender discrimination in Hollywood. But the 2015 review, which was initiated at the request of the American Civil Liberties Union, failed to gain support. Just over a year later, President Obama left office and President Trump ushered in a radical change in attitude.
Employment in Hollywood has also become more precarious in recent years. due to production cuts by major studios during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes.
While industry leaders have been vocal for years about the need for more diversity among executives and decision-makers, and chronic inequality remains the punchline of awards jokes, the climate has changed.
Trump returned to office less than a year ago and immediately called for an end to diversity and inclusion programs.
Trump's FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has eliminated diversity programs at his agency and launched an investigation into the Walt Disney Co.'s internal hiring programs. and Comcast. Carr wants to end programs that he believes disadvantage white people.
Paramount, led by technology figure David Ellison, agreed to dismantle all diversity and inclusion programs in the company, which includes CBS and Comedy Central, as a condition of obtaining FCC approval for the Ellison family's takeover of Paramount. This merger was completed in August.
Lauzen said she's not sure what her future research might find.
Corporate consolidation has added uncertainty.
Warner Bros., an iconic Hollywood studio for over a century, is up for auction.
Last month, the board of directors of Warner Bros. Discovery agreed to sell Film and TV studios HBO and HBO Max have gone to Netflix in a deal worth $82.7 billion. However, the Ellisons' Paramount disputes Warner's choice and filed for a hostile takeoverasking investors to offer their Warner shares to Paramount.
“Consolidation now hangs like a guillotine over the film industry, with job losses likely and the future of theatrical cinema in question,” Lauzen wrote in her report.
“Add in the current political war on diversity, and women in the film industry find themselves in uncharted territory,” Lauzen wrote. “Hollywood has never needed permission to exclude or diminish women, but now the industry has it.”
